Summary Of Fasting, Feasting By Anita Desai

The short story, “Interpreter of Maladies,” written by Jhumpa Lahiri, is about an Indian tour guide who has an epiphany once he realizes that one of his clients finds his side job, an interpreter for the doctor, romantic. Mrs. Das, the one who appears to show interest in the tour guide’s occupation, struggles throughout her married life to remain loyal and loving to her husband. This characteristic of Mrs. Das’ is highlighted through the author’s use of tone, which is defined as the way the author feels about a certain character. As well, the use of tone, seen specifically in the diction, syntax, and detail of this story, helps to identify and support various themes. Lahiri’s use of a condescending tone towards Mrs. Das bolsters the theme that unfaithfulness causes someone to become alienated from their family.

Trips to India become less and less frequent. Ashoke begins dressing like his American colleagues and Ashima retires her Sari, a traditional female outfit, for more relaxed dress while away from other Indians. Being in America for a long enough period of time, they begin to celebrate native holidays and start decorating their house. What seems to persist is the roles in their marriage. After all this time, Ashima continues to cook all of the meals. She doesn’t do much besides fetch groceries with the money given to her by her husband. Ashoke produces all of the money for the family, pays all the bills, takes care of all of the family’s paperwork, and handles any other essential tasks. While attending college, he begins a relationship with an American girl named Maxine. Maxine’s parents, Gerald and Lydia, show a complete contrast with Gogol’s in terms of public intimacy. Bengali spouses do not show public affection while Maxine’s just openly kiss and cuddle. For reasons such as these, Gogol’s parents tell him that the relationship will never work. After they break up and Gogol gives up on the love scene, Ashima loosely goes back to traditions by introducing another Bengali girl he should talk to named Moushumi. When they get married, the parents take over and throw a big Indian Ceremony with tons of people. They wanted to throw a normal American wedding but gave into their parents’ insistence on an

Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth is comprised of eight short stories about different Indian families’ struggles in America, many of them going through the immigrant experience. The conflicts are with friends and family, and also with themselves, as each of them attempt to find their own identity along with fitting in with the rest of society. One of the causes of these struggles that because the families in the stories are mixed in terms of generation. Many of the adults in the stories were first generation immigrants from India, while many of the children were raised in the United States, which is the second generation. This led to blending of culture and at the same time, clashes between the immigrant mentality of living and the American mentality of living. In Unaccustomed Earth, Lahiri demonstrates to the reader the important influence of environment, specifically culture and how it impacts parental teachings, on the personality and development of an individuals’ identity, and how the actions and development of characters can affect one’s family and friends; the impact of environment and culture is shown especially by the characters and stories “Hell-Heaven” and “Hema and Kaushik”.

When one reads Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s “The Interview”, it is very clear how gender roles are predominate within the family that is portrayed. Using this family as an extension to represent all of India, Jhabvala gives us some insight into the daily lives led over there. The story is told through the eyes of an upper-class man who is completely dependent upon his family, specifically his brother and the women in the house. This essay will examine the male and female roles that are presented in this short story, how they parallel each other, and the deeper meanings hidden within the text.

The passage in Fasting, Feasting, by Anita Desai, Arun is out of his comfort zone going to the beach. Arun from the very start, starts making excuses to not go to the beach. He also, does not want to be anywhere close to Melanie While they walk to the beach. He complains about the noises of the wilderness and how horrible they are. He does these things because he does not feel comfortable in these places he has never been before. He talks about how his hands are sweaty and his hair on his neck raises. He also, wonders why people live in such close area to the wilderness. The story says “The town may be small and have little to offer, but how passionately he prefers its post office, its shops, its dry-cleaning stores and picture framers to this creeping curtain of insidious green…(Desai). This complaining about the wilderness is most likely due to the fact that he has most likely stayed in town most of his stay in America. He has adapted to the town he has probably only really seen.

The book points out many different attacks on Indian culture. John’s adoption, legal or not, by his kind but misguided parents demonstrates the tragedy that can come from cross-cultural adoption. The experiences of Marie’s cousin Reggie, who has the tapes of his family’s stories stolen and co-opted by Dr. Mather (who has convinced himself that he is doing the right thing because the find is anthropologically valuable) demonstrates the wrongs done by intellectuals who only view other cultures in terms of what they can learn from them. Truck Schultz and the three enraged college students demonstrate how quickly the underlying distrust of

In the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part time Indian”, author Sherman Alexie shares a compelling story representing racial issues among communities and families in cultural areas today, and a boy’s journey to find who he truly is, while being torn between two cultures. In this novel the main character, young Junior finds himself truly understanding that he is more than just an indian. In order to know more about the plot behind the novel, author Alexie takes the reader into Junior’s perspective to bring the story to life and let the reader understand how racial issues along with family problems make a play into today’s society. The novel shows a countless number of situations Junior encounters that impact his life throughout the novel.

First, this novel showcases acts of caring for family and friends, during a rough time for all the Indians bringing them closer into one community. The protagonist Sabine displays acts of caring among her friends and family. For instance, near the end of the novel, Sabine helps her mother’s friend, Lalita, despite having a sour relationship with her. Sabine saves Lalita from being arrested by lying to a military officer, thus making Sabine a more confident and brave person. Sabine faces her fear of the military and gains the power she

The heat wave of the summer of 1952, Djinda wiped her hands against her dress. Her mother would kill her, it was dirty and the pink had faded. Her feet were bare and she hurried across the burning sand toward the small house her father had built. They’d both compromised each of their cultures; her father could do whatever he wanted that involved his culture but as long as he built her mother a house. This had been before she was born; her mother had also wanted to go to the hospital for her birth but had compromised to let the women of her husband’s tribe in there with her – much to the doctor’s protests.

In ‘The Tribe’ Michael Mohammad Ahmad and Lucy Treloar in ‘Salt Creek’ show a major role in their lives through their perspective in recognising gender norms in The Tribe and historical narratives in Salt Creek. In contrast, the difference between gender norms and historical narratives is that gender norms are what men or women are determined to do because of their sex body parts. Gender norm contain a variety of behaviours, beliefs, values and traditions based on the knowledge of what men and women think they should do that are identified as women or men. Historical narrative is a theory that traditional or modern events are story-based written in historical form that is beyond the control of humans. Throughout, this essay states gender norms in The Tribe, which demonstrates violence against women when Bani and his male family members are physical towards women and women are obedience due to traditionalism. In Salt Creek, historical narratives is established through Papa’s movement to an agricultural area where land is owned by ‘no one’ and furthermore Hester’s historical romance with Charles. These two texts state the behaviour of men and the return of colonial settlers and independence.

Deshpande's concern and sympathy are primarily for the woman in whatever circumstances she might be placed or whatever role in the society she might be playing. While revealing the woman's struggle to secure self-respect and self-identity for herself through her protagonists, the author subtly unravels the multiple levels of oppression, including sexual oppression experienced by women in our society thus creating a new social awareness. This stance of Deshpande makes her a potential feminist writer creating a woman's world with loving, care and a soothing touch depicting the nuances of her consciousness while advocating her liberation from the meticulously concocted web of imposed socio-cultural orders that have existed over centuries. From

This battle between the likable, progressive character of Koly and her difficult, traditional mother- in-law causes unfair associations with India. The young women is so westernized as to become unfamiliar in her own land and Stewart assesses that “Koly seems to be the exception rather than the rule” (100). Stewart remains apprehensive about Whelan’s account of Koly and India because the author of Homeless Bird seems to prescribe to western attitudes that ultimately “establishes a platform for situating the other, the ones not like us” that effectively illustrates them as “abject and marginalized” (97). This is manifested in Stewart suggestion that Whelan succeeds in villainizing an entire country’s way of life that is (inaccurately) embodied in the unlikable mother-in-law, essentially becoming the contemptuous other (100).

To love and to be loved is elementary to human mind just as food, clothing and shelter are to the body. Family emerges as a powerful nexus in Indian society simply because it ensures the existence of somebody who needs to be loved and who reciprocates the love. All nine stories in Lahiri’s collection present characters who consciously or unconsciously crave for an adherence to a strong and stable root – a nation, a culture, a religion or a family– while longing to nourish and support a dependent soul within the familial institution; an intense desire for being rooted and being the root.

Through her tasteful selection of contemporary Indian influenced prose pieces, Jhumpa Lahiri traces the unique journey of Indian families established in America. Focusing on the intergenerational aspect of traditional households, Lahiri conveys the emotional rollercoaster that accompanies a person who is branded as a foreigner. In America, there exists a common misconception that immigrants who arrive in this country fully assimilate or seek to assimilate as time progresses. The category I chose was "The Dot of true Happiness." The dot which signifies the bindi, a traditional red mark worn by Indian people, is the source of true happiness among these immigrants.

This passage from “Fasting, Feasting” by Anita Desai contrasts American and Indian cultures. Desai does this by showing the effects of culture shock on Arun, an Indian foreign exchange student living in America. Indian culture raises young boys to learn and think; whereas America, Arun’s new home, emphasizes action over thought. Arun has a hard time adjusting to his new environment, and his rigidity affects his quality of life. Desai makes use of literary devices to reveal a lonesome boy in unfamiliar surroundings. This boy, because of his foreign values and culture, is uninclined to leave the comforts of certainty.